Slot Providers

The Bigwinboard iGaming chart is an up to date list for players to keep track of how game providers are performing in terms of general RTP and other statistical parameters

Data gathered from thousands of players connected to the Slot Tracker database

Learn what game providers are performing well and which ones to stay away from

For those of you that don't know the terms very well, a slot provider is a producer of online slots. Online casinos have no influence on the actual outcome and the games themselves are mirrored from the software developers own servers. So simply speaking - the casinos build their pages around a platform with built-in functions such as payments, customer support, and loyalty systems, while the slots are embedded in the same way you would embed a Youtube clip on your website.

A lot of people will often claim that games are rigged, especially when they're on a losing streak. But this is a claim that is not true as long as you stick to trusted casinos of the kind we list on Bigwinboard.com. How can we make such a claim? We'll list the reasons below.

Playing on a bad casino puts you at risk of playing pirate software, even if it's becoming less common these days. There are two main reasons why pirated slots are being used - to avoid licensing costs and to increase revenue.

So why do we believe it would be highly unlikely for online slots to be "rigged"?

Slots go through independent testing for fairness and to examine the random number generator (RNG).

Reputable casino regulators such as Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) and the UKGC don't allow for on-the-fly change of the RTP, and is something that requires the game to undergo a new test.

There are thousands of people working (and have worked) in the casino and igaming industry. If bad methods were systematically being used, it is very likely a whistleblower would have come forward by now.

The slots are designed to give the casinos an edge by a few percents. The actual edge for a given slot is represented by something called Return to Player (RTP). Every slot has it's own RTP, so a slot with a 95% RTP will pay back 95% of the money to the players, and the 5% is for the casino to keep. This assures the casino will always make a profit on the slot in the long run, no matter what happens. Thus there is no need to "rig" a slot and for a casino to risk its brand and reputation while also committing a criminal act.

We are not saying changes cannot be made to a players disadvantage however. For example, nothing seems to prevent a game provider from changing the variance of a certain game by lowering the frequency of big wins and instead increase the frequency of smaller wins. The RTP would remain the same while making it harder for the player to get those giant wins that result in withdrawals. To the best of our knowledge, there is nothing that prevents a game provider from making such changes (correct us if we are wrong).

There are also some question marks in regard to max win caps. Some game providers advertise 20,000x (or more) max wins and even unlimited retriggers. But at the same time, we've seen examples of games where the max win potential has been capped or limited, possibly at the request of the casino. The problem is that there seems to be no regulation in place in regard to this, and it would be quite unfortunate if players were led to believe that they are playing the same slot on all casinos, when in fact they are not.

Having said this, we again have to stress the importance of playing on trusted casinos and sticking to trusted game providers. This also means playing on casinos regulated by trusted licensing authorities. Examples of trusted licensing authorities are:

Malta Gaming Authorities (MGA)

UK Gambling Commission (UKGC)

Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC)

Gibraltar Licensing Authority (GLA)

Danish Gambling Authority

What all these trusted licensing authorities have in common is that they operate within the EU. This means that they themselves are put under critical observation.

There is one license we haven't mentioned yet and which is widely used by many casinos - the Curacao license. This is basically an offshore jurisdiction for online gambling operators (casinos) and being the toothless licensing authority it is, a lot of things are allowed that would never pass under MGA or UKGC regulation.

Online casinos can hold more than one license, something that is common and required to be able to operate within different jurisdictions. For example, a casino without a UKGC license will not be allowed to operate in the UK. Many casinos with an MGA and UKGC license also have a Curacao license, which is necessary as many game providers license their games in Curacao. Why are they doing this? The honest answer is that it is a service many casinos appreciate since it allows them to do something the MGA and UKGC don't, which is to change the RTP, and on top of this, they are not required to display the RTP. One exception to this is the UK, where casinos are required to display the RTP no matter where the game is licensed.

We know of a few game providers that have been confirmed to ship their games with a number of different RTP settings the casinos can choose from. Those are Play'n GO, IGT, NextGen and Novomatic. From the examples we've seen, the RTP can be as low as 84%. Unfortunately, the lack of transparency is worrying to say the least. The excuse from industry representatives is that it allows casinos to adjust to taxes and other expenses in certain markets, but the negative aspect from a players point of view is of course that this can be abused to increase revenue.

It is likely that more game providers allow for changes in RTP settings. However, NetEnt, for example, is one of few, maybe the only game provider, whose games are always licensed by reputable licensing authorities.

Some players will never trust slots to not be rigged, but wouldn't it be nice if we could keep track of stats ourselves? Now we can! With thousands of players connected to it, the Slot Tracker collects data on the fly and presents it to us to list here. This page will be updated on a regular basis so keep an eye on it.

How To Interpret The Stats

To be able to be as accurate as possible, most types of statistics require a vast amount of data to be collected. Slot statistics depend on a lot of spins for it to carry any weight. In general, we would say it takes at least a couple of million spins on a particular slot for the stats to make any real sense.

A low number of spins can paint a very skewed picture as a couple of massive wins can have a great impact on the RTP and make it spike. This same principle can also result in a lower than expected RTP. With a larger number of spins, the RTP will eventually even out until it reaches it's actual RTP.

If you want to learn more about RTP we advise you to read our article about Return to Player.

We have chosen to list the game providers based on the RTP. The purpose of this list is mainly to put pressure on game providers and casinos to make sure they give us fair games, but it's also interesting numbers for those of us who enjoy gambling. We don't advice to use this list as some sort of "edge" to beat the slots since there are too many factors involved to make use of a general list like this. For example, there may be a great variations of slots available from one game provider, both in RTP and variance. One would have to look at individual slots to make more sense in this aspect.

Non qualified slot providers (low amount of spins)

Red Tiger 309,968 spins - 96.23% RTP.

WMS 932,062 spins - 95.96% RTP.

Merkur 1,294,100 spins - 94.64% RTP.

Push Gaming 669,791 spins - 92.45% RTP.

Quickspin 1,338,639 spins - 69.39% RTP (!).

Disclaimer

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